Liz
Taking a deep breath, I held my hand up to the door and knocked on it three times.
Be reckless. He has no power over you anymore. He doesn’t get to step in and try and ruin your life like this. He is going to get what he deserves.
I could hear someone stirring inside. That was always the problem with this older property—it always felt like the walls were far too thin. Like anyone walking by could hear all the problems we held within.
The red paint on the door was chipping. There were stains right under the doorbell, which no longer worked. Back when we were still together, I tried to convince him to get one of those smart ones, but he was never really into it.
Sucks for him.
When he came up to look through the peephole, I could see his shadow, so I made sure to give him a smile.
The sound of the door unlocking was harsh, and maybe I should have been afraid. But I was determined instead.
When it opened, he looked at me suspiciously. His eyes roamed up and down my body, looking for anything out of place, before he looked behind me.
“What? Surprised that I'm alive?”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “Is this some type of—”
“Not a trick. No one's with me. I came to talk.”
“Then talk,” he said with a huff, opening the door and showing me in.
It was so odd to be shown into my own house. Almost nothing had changed. With the cards I had been dealt, I had left most of the things I’d collected. That included the antique sofa and matching love seat in the foyer, which seemed like the perfect place to have our conversation.
I moved to the sofa and looked at the intricate painting across from me. A woman alone in a field of flowers. I used to think it was a bit depressing, and somehow that's what I liked so much about it. A woman, just like me, alone in this depressing world.
But the more I looked at her now, the more I felt that it wasn't depressing at all. Maybe she chose to be in that field of flowers as her first move into living a life of her own.
Maybe she’s not even alone. Just like I’m not. Not anymore.
He sat on the love seat across from me, his face blocking my view of the painting long enough to cause a queasy feeling in my gut. I put my tote bag down beside me.
“So,” I said with a sigh and placed my hands on my lap. “You wanted me, and now I'm here. Now tell me, is it everything you ever dreamed of?”
As he stayed silent, I took him in more critically this time.
He was in a gray T-shirt and basketball shorts, neither looking like they had been washed in at least three weeks. He was unshaven and his hair was greasy. Even though he got the better end of the deal, it would seem he was declining.
I took pleasure in it. In how little and frail and disgusting he looked.
I never allowed myself to think like this before. To look down on him.
There was always a voice in the back of my head that sounded a little bit too much like my mother's always telling me I shouldn't judge him so harshly. That I was being mean to my own husband—the person who made my life possible and gave me my daughter.
Today, I was pushing that voice to the back of my head and beating it up with a heavy metal shovel.
He gave me nothing. I gave myself and my daughter everything. And here he was, this sad little sample of a man, trying to take it all away.
“What?” I asked. “Now you have nothing to say?”
“So you’re coming back to me?”
I tilted my head to the side and crossed one leg over the other. “Was that what I said?”
He started puffing up. There it is. He could only act meager and weak for so long before it started to eat at him. Three minutes. A new record for him.
My eyes searched the room, looking at the corners, where I knew my saving grace would be hidden.
Just push a little more. Channel all the recklessness into this moment.
“See, I knew you would come here spouting this bullshit.”
He started shifting in his seat. Looking around the room. His anger was stifling.
A part of me was scared of it. After all, he had burned down my gallery. He had smashed the window. And on an occasion long ago, he even tried to hurt me.
I could see him fantasizing about doing the same right now.
But as I sat there, I saw him as the little man who just wanted me to feel small. Wanted me to regret leaving him and not treating him like the king he believed himself to be.
I stood up and carefully placed my bag on the couch, but not before grabbing something small from the inside and carefully keeping it out of sight. When I walked to him, he was so shocked by my sudden movement that he just sat there, frozen.
I let my hand cup his cheek, and his eyes widened. His fantasies were coming true. I could see it in his eyes. His wife was crawling back to him.
Quick as lightning, I raised my hand and slapped it as hard as I could against his cheek. The sound of it sounded like a gunshot that echoed through the room as he reacted just as I knew he would—with his hand around my throat.
His eyes were crazed.
“You fucking bitch.”
I let out a laugh. “That's it? That's how hard you can choke? This is child’s play—”
He squeezed harder, cutting off my air supply.
“Yeah, I bet you get off to this, don't you? I knew you were a whore, but to stoop so low as letting people fuck you in public?”
I slammed my pointed shoe into his chin, hard enough that he dropped me. I coughed and wiped my spit with the back of my hand.
“Happily,” I said with a low chuckle. “I didn't realize what orgasms were supposed to feel like until I finally found someone capable.
Now I know that whatever the fuck you were trying to do with that little dick of yours was just embarrassing.
So yeah, I'll let them fuck me wherever and whenever I feel like to make up for all the years of disappointment you gave me. And I will never go back to you—”
When he slapped me across the face, I fell to the ground. Then he was on top of me, straddling me, using his strength to force my hands to the floor. And that's when he saw it.
The small knife Sloan had given me.
I stabbed it into his shoulder.
He yelled, and the distraction was enough for me to crawl away, but then his hand grabbed my foot, and he pulled me back. I let out a feral scream.
Panic started clawing at me.
He’s going to kill me. I can feel it.
He was above me again, the knife gleaming in his hands.
“I should've done this a long time ago.”
There was no sign of the teenager I’d married back then. This was a man who had lost everything. And it had happened far before we were divorced.
“You don't want to do this,” I panted, my hands trying to stop the knife’s descent.
“Oh, trust me, I do.”
My eyes locked on it. The thing that was going to kill me. I thought of Claire. I thought of how much I loved her. Of how I would miss her every single day. Of how I wished I could've held her one last time.
I thought of Jax. How kind she had been to me. She had been the change. She had been the one who had given me the strength to do this. God, I would miss her. I loved her so much.
I’m sorry—
A large shovel hitting my ex's face pulled me from my depressive spiral.
With a gasp, I looked up to see none other than Andy. She was wearing a hoodie and glasses to try to hide her identity, but I knew it was her.
“Fuck yeah!”
She helped me up, and we both looked at my writhing and moaning ex on the floor with disgust.
“Thanks for coming,” I said, brushing dirt from the floor off my clothes. “One more minute and I would've been gone.”
She tilted her face down so she could look at me over her glasses. “You know I'm always down for a side quest.”
I let out a chuckle and went to my bag to pull out some of the tools Sloan had given me.
Rope. A lighter. A small canister of gasoline. And a display.
“Not so fast!” Andy gave my ex another hard whack on the back. His groan was like music to my ears.
I walked over to the corner of the room and picked up the camera that had been carefully placed there by one of Sloan’s contacts. I didn't ask who, nor did I care. As long as it was done.
Andy and I grabbed the rope and made quick work of tying him up. He tried to fight, but Andy threatened him with another hit of the shovel, and he quieted down pretty quickly.
I used the display to check the footage that the camera had captured. When I showed it to Andy, she gave me a nod.
“If we take out the sound, it works perfectly!”
“Agreed.”
I tied my hair up with a band I kept on my wrist.
“Now this is what's going to happen. We're going to go to the police. Not only am I going to file another report against you, but I'm also going to show them all the texts you sent me where you threatened to kill me and Claire if I didn’t show up today.”
His face twisted in anger. “I never sent those texts!”
“Really?” I pulled out my phone and showed him the most recent messages. “Because you actually did.” His bewildered expression only annoyed me further. “What? You thought you were the only one with connections? Come on.”
I shoved the phone back in my pocket and turned to show him the display with the video of him choking me and almost stabbing me.
“And this will go online,” I added with a sweet smile. “You and your little friends won’t be able to do anything once the public gets a hold of this.”
I watched as it finally sank in. “You fucking planned this.”
Andy grimaced and looked at me. “I can't believe you married this guy. He’s kind of stupid.”
“Who are you anyway?”
Andy just shrugged. “A friend who just happens to love a little bit of payback.”
“I really owe you for this one,” I told her as I started packing things up.
“Oh, yeah. I almost forgot the best part!
You're going to be so upset that I got away that you're going to burn down the house and try to burn yourself along with it.
I'm sure you can figure out how to get out of those ropes pretty fast before you… you know. Die.”
He struggled against them, but they wouldn’t budge.
“You bitch! You're fucking crazy!”
I hauled the bag over my shoulder and motioned for Andy to leave. She nodded, sparing my ex-husband one last disgusted look before she started toward the door.
“I'll start the car for you!”
And then it was just me and him alone.
I walked up to him and grabbed his face in my hands.
“You probably expect me to say that you ruined my life and blah blah.
But it's far from that. Actually, since I got rid of you, I was able to have a life I never would've dreamed of.
I have Claire, a job I love, and the love of my life.
You tried to take everything from me, and now you'll pay for it.”
I pulled my hand back and sent him one last final slap across the face. Blood came out of his mouth.
“Oh yeah—think twice about who you talk to about this.” I leaned forward to whisper in his ear. “Who do you think they'll believe this time? The crazy, jealous ex-husband who now has a record, or the pitiful divorced middle-aged woman who just wanted to protect her kid?”
I dropped the knife into his bound hands. “Get to work on that before it’s too late, hm?”
Turning away, I walked through the house. I let my eyes linger on the places where Claire had grown up.
The stairs she had almost fallen down too many times.
The corner where she would play hide-and-seek with me every morning.
The kitchen where she and I would cook all the meals together.
I still remembered her laughter as a toddler when she tried to make a cake with me.
I poured gasoline over all of it and headed straight to the back door. I wished I could go upstairs, but I knew that if I lingered, the plan wouldn't work. Saying one last goodbye, I threw the canister inside, along with the lighter.
The flames burst to life immediately, but I let myself take it in before turning and running out. Andy was already waiting in her car, so when I ran in, we pulled away. I didn't miss my ex-husband running out of the house and down the street behind us.
“Pity,” Andy said as she looked at him through the rearview mirror.
I grabbed her knee and gave it a squeeze. “Thanks again.”
She turned to me with a mischievous smile. “Anytime. I have to admit that was a little exhilarating. I can't wait to see what our next outing will be.”
I couldn't help but let out a small chuckle.
I still had a lot of work to do, but I was going to make this work. I would rely on every single person I’d met and trust they would help me see it through.
I leaned back against my seat and took a deep breath.
They won't harm a hair on your head, Jax. I will end them all before they do.